Honda CRV, Toyota Rav4, Audi Quattro, VW Syncro, and the whole host of all-wheel drive cars, crossovers and CUVs: they all trace their roots back to this skinny and ugly little Subaru 4WD wagon. Is this the most revolutionary and influential modern car?

Talk about a most worthy Curbside Classic:. Not only is the GL/Leone wagon the granddaddy of all modern Subarus, it’s also the progenitor of the whole genre of popular-priced four wheel drive passenger cars. That was once a substantial category: four wheel drive was available on wide variety of sedans and wagons from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, VW, Audi, Volvo and even the lowly Ford Tempo, among others. And since they evolved into today’s CUVs/crossovers, we can rightfully say that this homely little car was the catalyst for an enormous revolution in the passenger car industry, perhaps the most significant one in recent decades. And if that’s not enough, this is a daily driver with over 300k miles on it.

The history of Subaru and how they came to build this car is fascinating. Its roots go back to the highly advanced Subaru 1000of 1965, a very advanced design even for European standards, featuring a water cooled boxer four mounted ahead of the driven front wheels. Given the drive train layout, it is the easiest type of configuration to adapt to four wheel drive, sending power back by extending the output shaft of the transmission to the rear. A drive shaft and rear differential and axle shafts more or less accomplished the trick.

Of course, we need to acknowledge that Subaru’s four wheel drive system of the times was strictly a part-time arrangement, since it lacked a center differential. Therefore, it was not full-time AWD, which was rightfully pioneered by the AMC Eagle. But the Subaru was still the breakthrough 4WD passenger car, and there’s little doubt that its existence may have stimulated the Eagle to some degree or another. Not that anyone connected to it would ever likely acknowledge it. But the fact that the Eagle came out five years after the Subaru 4WD wagon in 1975, and was clearly an evolutionary development of it cannot be denied.

For what it’s worth, Subaru’s part time arrangement was really quite satisfactory in practice, given that they already had superb traction with that engine hanging out in front of the drive wheels. There’s no comparison to what a standard RWD AMC Concord gained by AWD in traction. The FWD Subarus were about as good as it got in that respect, comparable to that traction-master, the VW Beetle.

Nevertheless, the 4WD Subaru was a revelation, especially to the stereotypical back-to-the-land-or-small-towns types in places like Vermont, Colorado, the North West, and anywhere where snow and rough roads were an issue. Subaru wagons were the typical replacement for the rusted out VWs that were finally giving up the ghost in those difficult environments. Of course, that has given Subaru a rather exaggerated “Birkenstock” image, but the relatively higher levels of education and income of the Subaru demographic has held up through the decades. And obviously, they’re still huge in snow-belt and mountainous regions.

These little Subarus were truly the Billy Goats of cars; tough as nails, cheap to feed, and almost impossible to stop. Rust was the only thing that finally stopped them in their tracks, since snow and salt tend to go together. That probably explains why its taken me so long to find one. The tiny little boxer engine looks almost lost down there, and the fact that Subaru studied VW, Porsche and Corvair engines before designing theirs is obvious. The only question it raises is this: why the hell didn’t VW do the same thing, turning their boxers to the front and water cooling them? Today’s Golf would be just like an Impreza.

The tiny four started out with 1000 cc, and slowly grew through up to the final OHV version with 1600 cc. That’s what’s hiding under the spare here. The growling and throbbing of old Subaru engines is music to their fan’s ears. The owner of this one certainly loves these narrow-bodies; he own no less than eleven of them! Coupes, sedans, wagons; they’ve all come to him for a life extension. And they reward his appreciation with longevity: this one has over 300k on it.

The real goof ball originality-winner of this series of Subarus, which lasted through 1981, was the BRAT, which came out in 1977. There’s a few gen1s still around (CC here). It was a crazy attempt to jump into a market that nobody else had yet, the passenger-car based mini pickup, with 4WD no less. You got to hand it to Subaru for its gutsy ways.

Subaru 4WD wagons long ago became massively popular in places like Eugene (we happen to own one too). And no, Stephanie is not a lesbian, as far as I can tell. It seems like only yesterday, these narrow-body Subies were still everywhere. No more. In fact , this car was in town from Portland for a knife show. And even the following generation is starting to get increasingly scarce. Time stands still not even for Subarus. But they keep cranking them out, although today’s Outback is a monster compared to one of these. But rarely has a car company cornered a segment of the market as successfully as Subaru. Almost forty years after the first 4WD wagon appeared here, both the original as well as its successors are still going strong. Not a bad track record.

59 Comments

While the Subaru was the first on the market to have 4wd on a passenger car…it had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the Eagle. AMC had been playing with four-wheel-drive on carbodies years earlier; there were pictures floating around of a prototype 1972 Hornet with a cobbled-up Quadra-Trac system.

The Quadra-Trac system, used in Jeeps first in late 1973, was either the impetus or the result of various experiments; but AMC engineers had been horsing with the concept since they closed on the Jeep deal. Obviously someone higher-up didn’t think much of the idea, because it took absolute desperation, the failure of the Pacer and Matador and a complete lack of development money or other options, to get management to allow them to pull the trigger.

Both vehicles were revolutionary; but each probably developed completely independent of the other. Both, however, were responding to a market that was ready for such a vehicle.

On the topic of credit where due, I think that Subaru was heavily influenced by the Lancia Flavia, which was produced from 1960-1974 with an OHV, water cooled, H4 that was placed longitudinally ahead ahead of the driven front wheels.

Actually, Subaru launched 4WD in a wagon/sedan to the Japanese market in the Leone/Loyale in 1972. (Revealed at the 1971 Tokyo Motor Show) This would put them ahead well ahead of the AMC efforts in 1973, as JustPassinThru noted.

The first Subaru I remember was a 1981 4 door a guy at work bought instead of his usual Cortinas.It had a lot of extras and was still cheaper than the same size base model Cortina.I’m pretty sure the wagon in the feature wasn’t in the UK in the 70s

I may be one of the few people who got an up-close look at a new Subaru in 1971, which I believe was the first year these were offered in the States. My oldest cousin had married a guy from her hometown. He had a 66 or 67 LeMans 2 door hardtop that was a beautiful car. Right after getting married, they traded the Pontiac on a red 71 Subaru 2 door.

Nobody in my midwestern family had ever heard of a Subaru, so it was quite a novelty. It had that Japanese quality of everything feeling lightweight, but well put together. With that name, there was no mistaking that it was a Japanese car.

I only remember seeing it the one time, right after they bought it. He joined the Air Force and they went overseas, so I don’t recall how long they owned it. I am sure its body would not have lasted long in salty northwest Ohio.

Now, everyone around here has heard of Subaru, since they are made in Lafayette, Indiana. Finally, an Indiana-built car that is a commercial success. 🙂

The first FWD Subaru to hit our shores was the Leone’s predecessor the FF-1 in 1970. The GL/DL as the Leone was called in the US didn’t show up until later. While the two cars are similar they are different models.

jpcavanaugh

Posted July 3, 2013 at 8:53 AM

Wow – I wonder if one of these was what I saw. I thought I remembered the car, but I am certain that whatever I saw was in 1971.

Eric VanBuren

Posted July 3, 2013 at 9:05 AM

My understanding is that we didn’t get the Leone based model until the 73 model year. So if you saw one in 71 it would have been a ff-1 though I’ve heard some of those were just badged 1000.

Popular Science did a test of it, in 1971, with a Datsun, a Toyota, and a Beetle…I think it was a Super. First test of both the Super Beetle and the Subaru.

But I remember the somewhat odd proportions, the recessed, hooded headlights of the Subaru. The auto-test staff were skeptical – and asked, “is it here to stay?” Of course, as a kid, I’d never heard of a Subaru – much less the 360, which I have NEVER seen.

But PS identified their test model as an ff-1 – lowercase “f”s. Never heard that model mentioned again. Even the 4WD wagon…which was the first Subaru to make it into my world…had no model name; it was just a “4WD” Subaru.

EDIT: I see EVB partly answered my question as I was typing.

Eric VanBuren

Posted July 3, 2013 at 8:47 AM

Even on the brochure cover they called it a ff-1 not a FF-1 for what ever reason. It has been a long long time since I saw one in the flesh and I remember that it did have that model designation on the trunk lid. Technically the Leone didn’t have a model name in the US initially, presumably since the 360 and ff-1 had been dropped and they only had the one model. They did however carry GL and DL badges which were trim levels the DL being the “deluxe” version. Once the Legacy was introduced they did start referring to the US version of the Leone as the Loyale.

The FF-1 was an evolution of the original 1000. It was sold in the US as the FF-1 Star, or just Subaru Star, in 1970 and 1971. I suspect Bricklin added the “Star”, as the FF-1 probably didn’t seem snappy enough to his marketer’s mind set.

Wikipedia says the ff-1 Star moniker was used in Japan too FWIW. The ones I saw and worked on carried a ff-1 badge for certain, I don’t remember any badge that said Star but of course that was a few decades ago. I do know that in the parts books they showed it as the ff-1 because I had to go to a couple of places until it showed up in the books so they could get the right points, spark plugs, ect.

Given that Subies (not really an applicable term anymore) have gone upscale in the classic American marketing strategy, here in Vermont Suzuki SX-4s have taken over the niche once occupied by the feature car.

Not sure yet whether the mechanicals on these will follow in Suburu’s footsteps. But for now, in these niche markets, the SX-4 is helping to keep Suzuki alive.

The SX4 is all over ski country here in British Columbia. From what I have heard the only reason Suzuki is staying in North America, where is sells reasonable numbers of cars that kept the stores open. However, with Suzuki out of the USA, the writing was on the wall for Suzuki in Canada. There’ll have to be another cheap and tough 4WD to replace it. Were I to want a snow country car here in the GWN, I would probably choose a Nissan X Trail, a very tough ute that you guys didn’t get down south, which is too bad as it was a real cool little thing. A good one is about $8500 here.

But if you go far enough south, to Mexico, you can get the X-Trail. Quite strange that we are left out in the US, makes me think they can’t pass US safety standards, as I’m pretty sure one of their engines that meets emissions standards would fit in.

Where in Vermont are you located? I am originally from Bennington, born and raised there.

Southwestern VT has always been Subaru country, as far as I’m concerned. Last time I was home, I saw that just about every other car was an Outback. Where are the old Volvos and Saabs of yesteryear that populated our state back in the day?

Dealerships are franchises, which can continue to operate as long as they have inventory. Some of the more successful dealerships actually bought up others inventory after Suzuki announced they were shuttering US operations, the same thing happened with Saab. Suzuki Automobiles only currently exists in the US as a corporate entity for warranty and parts. St. Johnsbury had better get a Subaru or Kia franchise if they hope to make it to 2014…

The Suzuki SZ4 AWD is a nice car the 2wd swift is awful I had one as a loaner it was crap they look fun in the one make race series but just like the T Gemini and bubble shape Mazda 121 that used the same marketing strategy the one you can buy is rubbish,

Subaru hit Erie in either ’73 or ’74. I remember test driving a FWD Leone coupe in ’74, and was mildly impressed with it. Yeah, we had the 360’s (the dealership was in an abandoned restaurant, no joke, the cars were small enough to fit in the dining room) but they didn’t sell. Then I started seeing the “Not a Japanese Beetle” ads around ’70.

Really hate Subaru’s inevitable upscale and upsize evolution. Up to two generations ago, both lines interested me, but they’ve grown into the competition and have lost all the interestingness about them.

My 2001 Impreza wagon I guess can be considered a grandchild of the featured vehicle, and although semi-retired with 179,000 miles on it remains by far the most reliable and trouble-free car I’ve ever owned. The boxer layout provides clear dynamic advantages (low profile and CG) that make me wonder why this arrangement never became more popular.

Subies have lost much of their eccentricity in recent years, but I’ve seen a few XV Crosstreks around town and kind of like them.

Random shallow comment: Always enjoyed the parent company’s name. If I ever own a business, it is so going to be called “GGH Heavy Industries”.

In answer to your question about why VW didn’t go boxer, first off VW of Brazil did sort of try it with the Gol which was originally equipped with a front mounted air cooled Beetle engine and front wheel drive like a latter day Tempo Matador. While VW could have adapted the Wasserboxer from a Vanagon to make a liquid cooled Gol, they ended up using the corporate inline 4 instead and sold the deluxe version in the US as the Fox.
Back on topic, VW probably went to inline fours instead of developing the boxer engine because they had a lot of Audi engineering that they could immediately adapt, and also because after the failure of the 411/412 they wanted a more normal car. The longitudinal enginedB1 Passat was a reskinned Audi 80 and the transverse engined Golf was following the European template of the Fiat 128 and Simca 1100.

These Audi engines were also pretty much state of the art when VW took them over. The basic B block engine is still with us as the 2.Slow powering base Jettas. I see plenty of them equipped that way, with an engine that goes back 50 years almost.

An inline, liquid cooled engine is simply cheaper than an air cooled four. It has one block/crancase and one head. The air cooled engine has a crankcase, four individual cylinders and two cylinder heads. The inline is smoother, more powerful, cheaper to make, more economical and has a helluva better heater. It was a no-brainer. Driving an air cooled VW in Canada in the winter was always an adventure. If the gas heater didn’t work, you often didn’t drive. When it did work, it used loads of gas.

Growing up in Michigan in the 70’s these and their gen II brothers were common. I remember my dad thinking they were ugly and rust prone, but I always thought they were cool.

In about 1993, while living in FL, I found an ’80 4WD GL wagon for cheap. I drove that car on an epic cross-country trip through the US SW. The thing truly was a mountain goat. We took it on a memorable ride through trails around Big Sur and my passengers, who were locals, commented that it was pretty much just jeeps and subarus that could make it through the narrow, steep and slippery trails up there. It was the best $500 car I ever had.

Here is a picture of the engine from the first FWD Subaru to be sold in the US the FF-1 or 1000. You can really see it’s roots as copy of the VW engine but with water cooling. Note this pic is of a hot rod version with dual carbs and not the single carb engine that we saw in the US. Note the very VW like exhaust ports on the side of the heads and single intake port, unlike the later versions used in the DL/GL with a single exh port on the bottom and dual intake ports.

Subarus were the first Japanese car with a truly durable engine. While the others were regularly popping head gaskets and often just worn out by around 100K the EA engine family would do 200K with ease and even make it to the 300K mark with a little care and luck.

And here’s a picture of the 1959 Lloyd Arabella engine. Look a bit similar?

The story is that Subaru looked at a number of boxer engines, including the Corvair, before designing their first one. This is pretty consistent with Japanese practice at the time. But the Arabella engine was the only water-cooled boxer four at the time, although the Subaru engine does differ in a number of aspects.
Update: Forgot the Lancia Flavia boxer; see below.

Never seen one of those before definitely very similar though it too has some VWish aspects with the valve cover held down by a bail instead of bolts. Presumably they too had seen the VW engine before putting pencil to paper and designing theirs. The location of the distributor and exhaust ports of the Subaru are more VWish on the other hand. So I’d say the Subaru designers were likely influenced by both.

Just in case you’ve forgotten, Jowett in the UK were producing the Javelin saloon and the Jupiter sports car in the early 50’s powered by their 1500cc water-cooled flat four, but driving the rear wheels. Pre-war Jowetts used a flat-twin motor.

“Subarus were the first Japanese car with a truly durable engine. While the others were regularly popping head gaskets and often just worn out by around 100K the EA engine family would do 200K with ease and even make it to the 300K mark with a little care and luck.”

I believe it. I’ve never heard or read anything negative about the Subaru boxer.

I have read that it took until the 1600 engine for this to apply, the 1000-1400 versions were not quite there. Mind you I don’t think I’ve seen more than one pre-1600 version here. A family friend had a Brumby/Brat that looked similar to the feature car until it was replaced by a Forester within the last 10 years. Other family members had later model versions.

Sorry but a little bit of good luck is involved in getting even the most robust car to last a very long time. Even brand new parts, from reputable suppliers sometimes go bad w/o any warning and the right ones can take out an engine.

The usual Subaru seen where I live is a horribly butchered example with a body kit,decals and a huge diameter drainpipe exhaust that sounds like someone farting in the bath,driven by a spotty chav and his orange faced girl friend with horrible drum’n’bass music blaring out.I quite like the ones that don’t look like a boy racer’s wet dream

Chased one through some roundabouts last night Gem with all his go fast kit and WRX badging he could not out corner my diesel Citroen out accelerate it of course he could but I catch Subarus on corners regularly, you need to know how to drive one fast and they dont come with instructions on how to make them point on corners instead of naturally understeer like they do.

Cool find Paul! I have never seen a Subaru that old in the flesh. We had a couple of the GL’s when I was growing up including my dad’s 81 4WD wagon. That spare tire and jack under the hood with the engine brings back memories. It was a tough-as-nails little wagon with a 5 speed manual, and the lever for the high or low range 4WD. Ours also had the brush guard tubular bumper for the front, and rock slider pans under the engine and trans to protect your oil pan when off road. It was the car that I learned to drive with, and also the first manual car I drove. It’s off-road ability was only limited by it’s power and it’s ground clearance. One thing it was not, was quick. My 82 Civic with automatic felt like a sports car by comparison. Dad got well in excess of 200,000 miles in his wagon before rust and constant CV joint replacement led him to trade it in for our Pontiac 6000 Wagon.

Interesting story on the location of the spare tire. I had a customer that had just gone through a divorce and they were a two Subaru family. The ex-wife got the sedan version, that he had been the main driver of and shortly after he had moved out she came out to a flat tire. She accused him of taking the spare tire (and implied that he had given her the flat) since she didn’t find one in the trunk. Of course it was there, exactly where it was supposed to be, under the hood.

These were fairly common in my small hometown, as it is also the home of a state university. It also helped that the local Dodge dealer held a Subaru franchise in the early 1970s. The dealer had given it up by the early 1980s – just as Japanese cars were really starting to take off in the area.

Subaru built this as a true selectable 4WD where the CRV and Rav 4 are only 2wheel drive with 2 wheel assist which will see you bogged on your lawn, Ive had lots of wheel time in old Leonies on wet black cracking clay the only fault is small wheel arches, that particular surface will build up on tyres and jam them on any other slippery surface Subarus go great. Early piston ring jobs were often performed not long out of warranty on the 1600cc engine I knew of several that smoked young the later 1800 did massive mileages for a Japanese engine and the cars held up if you keep them off the beach. NZ has the highest ratio of Subaru ownership per head of population on this planet the later Legacy & Imprezzas are very popular but the turbo engines are quite weak internally and water jacket corrosion kills many, great cars IF you maintain them correctly but these are not Toyota bullet proof by a long shot.

Totally correct. The old OHV engines were basically unkillable with any kind of care but the OHC engines all need careful servicing or they will cause huge problems. They all eat head gaskets, every single one since about 2001. Subaru people see it as a price of membership.

Subaru was mostly a kei car (360, R-2, rex) and scooter (Fuji Rabbit) manufacturer after their aircraft company Nakajima was reorganized after the war. The original prototype cars were indeed based on modified Datsun wagons (they had a sharing agreement in the 1960), made for Japanese utility companies in Northern Japan, as Toyota Land Cruisers just were not comfortable enough.

Besides the quirky label and usually hideous design (come on people really, with the exception of the last gen Legacy it seems Subaru pays an incentive to the designer on the longest acid trip), Subaru never really crossed my choice path until the original Outback came out in ’95.

Too small inside overall, but it was a solid driving, sure footed creature.

Two years ago I started my journey to a new car (I buy one usually every 12-13 years). Literally dozens of test drives, notebooks of information, internal arguments and discussions. These past 12 months I was down to the Elite 8, Final Four, and the champion. The most researched car purchase in the history of car purchasing.

I pick up my Outback Saturday, and am truly excited. The boxer seems like a marvel, I loved the heavier-than-it-is feel of the test drive (I’m got the 2.5, so its…a…little…slower…than…the…3.6), the sure-footedness in the corners. The steering could have more feedback, GPS easier to use, perhaps a little plusher plastics on the dashboard (but it is a utility vehicle).

And Subaru ads continue to perpetuate the “granola & sandals” outdoorsy owner stereotype (this despite Sub. being part of “Fuji Heavy Industries,” which doesn’t sound very Birkenstock). Though not conforming to this demographic at all, we considered the Subaru wagon back in the ’90s, except it lacked a third seat like the Camry & Volvo 740, & less importantly, I think doors should have framed windows.

Subaru’s styling in the 70’s, more than any other Jap. make, provoked the thought: “What *were* they thinking?”

I have red through all the comments waiting for the Alfasud to pop up ! Fantastic engine and roadholding, but the most rust-prone car ever to be built. Its engine was the first one I thought of when reading about the exhaust rasp of the boxer.
As for Suzuki SX-4, they are sold as Fiat Sedici (sedici translates into sixsteen, as for 4×4=16) on the home market and I suppose in all EU.
As far as I can remember I started noticing the existence of Subaru only since the Forester appeared in the ’80s, but sure I may have missed the earlier models. (I suspect Forester was the equivalent of Outback in Italy /Europe, as I don’t find mention of this name here). Or maybe this is because japanese cars and bikes could be imported only in very limited numbers until much later.

I have owned several Subarus, including a new 2006 Legacy spec.B, a new 2007 Legacy spec.B, and my present 2007 Outback LL Bean 3.0 R. My favorite Subaru was my 1992 SVX LS-L, a splendid GT, which I wish I still owned. From the 1977 Leone to the SVX was a course of remarkable evolution. Wonderful vehicles!